November Princess
by LightRedemption
Summary: With Mengsk dead and the Dominion in ruins, the Queen of Blades set out to claim her freedom and the right to life of the living. There was, however, a few ties she had to cut. Rated T for Violence, because god knows I give a toss. Artwork belongs to Alexey-Konev and Arsenal21 on Deviantart.
1. Chapter 1

_**This project is the result of one bored Sunday night. Doing the research was a lot harder than it seemed, however, as Blizzard's writers were rather impressive pre-SC 2. While the sequel's writing was akin to that of a recycled bad joke, it did bring Nova into the scene, which I discovered an impressive amount of interesting backstory. That means I shall once again be here to destroy all that is terrible and canon.**_

_**Disclaimer: The context is set after Heart of the Swarm, before Legacy of the Void. This therefore nullifies ties with all further extensions.**_

* * *

Chapter 1

"What is it boy?"

Its teeth were starting to show. They had been thoroughly rendered through all kinds of flesh. The drool was getting everywhere. Still, it was cute, at least for its master. Stroking its hairless head with a tender delight, she appeared to be confounded as to why it was acting up. Perhaps it was bored. Truly a long time had passed since any of them seen any excitement. That would certainly explain why the creature was starting to make noises. They weren't the normal hissing one would expect though.

"It's always something."

Her feet sank into every step. If only these were real floors, she thought; then walking might have actually been enjoyable. Funny, of all the things she thought she'd miss, it's the concrete. It was either that or the boredom simply had taken over her mind. Floating in space for years on in was not exactly the most interesting life experiences around. She used to have deep slumbers, but after the metamorphosis, sleeping appeared to make no difference. With her pet going wild, there was nothing else to let out but a groan.

Also applicable was a bullet to the head.

The sensation was brief and foreign, but it was not hard to feel the head getting punctured from across the scene. The swift and cold air rushed through her mind, as she dropped straight down. The beast bellowed, as its attention was directed towards the origin of the shot. Its legs moved with swift, but its own life was quickly met with deliverance. Two silent shots were met with two casualties. It was almost too easy. The place was rather private, thus no reaction from anything outside appeared imminent. With that, the perpetrator emerged from the shadows, gun in one hand and satisfaction on the other.

"You're not so tough." Spoken under true cold blood. Nova had no remorse, of course. It was not easy getting here in the first place. The outfit certainly did not suit her cause, but it stuck. The only thing she had to worry about then was how to get off here. That was of course, provided things were going according to plan.

The Ghost felt her ankles clutched tight, as her stance became compromise. With minimal reaction time, Nova gripped her rifle and fired off another shot, on point as always. However, while visible damage was certainly presence, no lasting impact was detected. As such, her firearm was quickly removed, as she experienced her balance lifted off the ground. Held five feet above ground, Nova was fully aware of what kind of trouble she was in.

"I see you have not taken too kindly to my greetings." Her efforts were met with nothing but the cold stare of those lifeless eyes. They were sharp as well, switching quickly from the downed beast and back to the target at hand. "I am truly sorry about your pet."

Few words were needed, as Nova quickly felt the rugged claw impaling her abdomen. The pain was certainly real, but she had little to say. Blackness overwhelmed. It was over.

…

"This is surprising."

Nova's eyes open, only to see herself being strapped down to what could only be called, lovingly, the ground. The gaping wound in her stomach was still quite visible, and it was definitely hurting. That said, the more alarming presence would be the giant spider-snake creature extending itself over her vision.

"And to whom do I owe this pleasure?"

"Human. High psionic potential. Interesting"

That answered no questions, and raised many more. Before she could ask, however, the spider legs were already tight around her. Her suit was being slowly consumed, and that alone was impressive. There was no time to set off on that train of thought, however, as being both bound and injured did her no favors. Struggling to get out only made it worse, and the dripping acid was going to make contact soon enough.

"Is there any chance we could talk about this dissolving-me-into-liquid thing?"

Perhaps it was a bit too unreasonable to expect a conversation of mutual understanding. Soon enough, she was starting to feel the burn on her skin. Suddenly, being stabbed with a pike did not seem quite as bad. Trying her hardest not to move and make contact, Nova felt herself squeezed even harder.

"Abathur."

The Queen of Blades made her presence known, as she stepped in just in time to stop the absorption from creating any serious damage. That was, of course, relative to the third degree burns the victim was already experiencing at this time.

"I told you, no experiments on human."

Nova felt the grip loosened around her, but she was still nonetheless strapped. The pain was unending, but it also sent her adrenaline sky-high. She knew that voice, of course.

"...Kerrigan."

"Excuse the housekeeper."

The Queen of Blades approached. Eventually, the two were in full view of each other. The gunshot holes from before had all but disappeared without a trace, but blood was still a pinpoint for the punctured abdomen. "Funny, it was not the time to take out the trash."

"Why... am I still alive?"

Nova was mildly surprised that none other than the one she opted to murder halted her imminent and painful death. Still, the logical stepping-stone would of course be so that Kerrigan could deliver that death with in a more interesting manner. Whatever it was, she needed answers.

"I figured blowing a hole in yours and your pet's skull was enough to get you to dislike me."

"Are you trying to get me to kill you?" Said Kerrigan, in the most condescending tone possible. She appeared to be unable to deal with matter at such a pace. There was no point in finishing this fast.

"In case you haven't noticed, yes." Nova continued. If there was anything of her not tangled at the moment, it would be her words. They did not seem to be delivering any sort of weight, however. "I have a bleeding hole in my stomach, my skin is burned in ten different places and worst of all, I have no means of killing you at the moment."

Nova saw nothing else. A blunt hit across the head knocked her out cold.

...

"You're not going to let me die easily, are you?" Nova regained consciousness, only to see Kerrigan within view. There was little for her to do, although it did not seem like her movement was restricted any longer. She appeared to be back in Kerrigan's quarters, lying flat on her back. Nothing changed about her torn up uniform, however. Completely exhausted, the operative simply did not move, feeling no urge to do anything.

"I'm surprised you only think so now." The Queen of Blade rose from her throne. If nothing else, one would claim the look one her face was ecstatic. "You're going to stay right here to make up for what you've done."

"What would that be?" Nova grumbled. Perhaps she was far too confident when it came to the assassination. After all, the only data she had on her target was that taken from the research lab after Kerrigan was purged of her Zerg features. Not expect someone so dangerous to make some alterations after all these times was nothing short of naïve. Still, it was worth a try. "Aside from trying to murder you, of course."

"That I don't mind, but you killed my pet." The incessant smirk was starting to get worrying. Nova was feeling cold sweat. She had recognized by now that she was no longer feeling any kind of pain. In fact, her body was in a numbing state. Reaching over to the wound, she found it shelled by a protein substance. Her burn marks were scarring, but not bothering her at all. "All things considered, I'd say that this isn't such a bad deal."

"To hell with you." Nova boosted on her feet. While she did not possess nearly her normal strength, this should be enough to let her at least run for a bit. Kerrigan's none-reaction to this turn of events was quite disturbing, however. "What makes you think you can inject me with sedatives and expect me to do what you want?"

"Well, the only way for you to be able to resist would be if you killed yourself." Kerrigan made no mistake in asserting her control of the situation. She appeared to have everything in her pocket, figuratively speaking. No risk was perceived in approaching the prey. "So, I made sure you wouldn't."

"You underestimate me." Nova, fully determined to stop the game, had her hands around her neck. She was ready to simply end things with a quick twist, so that she would not have to deal with any of this nonsense. However, just as she tried to carry out, pain struck her mental state. She had no idea what was happening, but was not ready to give up. However, the shock was too much for her to continue, as the captured operative collapsed out of sheer exhaustion.

"Do I?"

"Explain yourself!" Panting, Nova roared in anger. Something was clearly wrong with her, and she was not going to let it go before she had answers. While it was quite obvious she was in absolutely no position to make demands, Kerrigan seemed eager to entertain the idea. "What did you do?"

"Abathur was more than happy to do a little modification. All I had to do was to give the order." The two came face-to-face, one glowing bright red and the other full of anticipation. Kerrigan seemed more than delighted to witness the struggle. "Let's just say... you're never going to talk back to me again."

"You..." The spirit of defiance was certainly admirable, but the pain quickly overtook Nova. She was no longer capable of throwing herself against this current. She felt as if her head was ready to explode at any given moment. It was something no training could prepare her for.

"I suggest you not putting up a fight." As smug as could be, the Queen of Blades was in the mood to play. For her, it simply was sadistically satisfying watching her prey squirming on the ground. "You're only making this harder on yourself."

"Stop it, now!" The Queen offered no retort, simply displaying her smile for all to see. It was a taunt more than anything else. Nova knew it perfectly well, and she would gladly end her own life rather than be subjected to this mental torture. However, she was not allowed to. While physical pain suffered will eventually turn numb, having her brain strained to madness will never go away. "Please."

"Good job." Almost instantaneously, the Ghost stopped struggling. Her entire body slammed onto the ground below, exhausted. A mixture of sweat and tears dribbled across her petite face, signaling total defeat. Everything she had accomplished up to now, all the integrity she felt she needed to keep; was washed away after that one word.

"You bitch!" Those breaths were all of what she had left. Of course, one would not expect Kerrigan to respond favorably to them. Her feet slammed into Nova's chest, causing her to cough furiously, gagging out blood with every stroke. The heel dug deeper with a circling motion, and the victim was simply too weak to retaliate.

"You better watch what you say." The punishment, while severe and damaging, was quickly lifted. Whatever Kerrigan wanted, it would not be to damage her prey beyond the point of recovery. After all, what good would a toy be, if it broke after the first time she played with it? "You'll soon learn that those words would be a mild description of what you're going to view me as."

"Go to hell."

Nova blacked out.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Trying out new things. They haven't proved to be working thus far.**_

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Chapter 2

Awoken, Nova peered across the space. It was blank and choke full of sludge, just like one would expect the inside of a Leviathan to be. It as surprising enough to her that it was possible to breathe inside one of these planetary beasts, but no one ever bothered with researching it before. Regardless, here she was, exhausted and defeated, knew not of her eventual fate. Her limbs were no longer bound, but she certainly was not rid of the torn clothes. What was she expecting, a maid crew in the middle of space?

"Up already?" A quick judge revealed Kerrigan's whereabouts, being right behind her all this time. Of course, there were few concerns for directions when someone was completely disoriented. Biting her lips, Nova forced herself backwards, in order to face the Queen of Blades. She was just the same as she was in their last encounter, to no one's surprise.

"You…" Nova sighed. She understood the situation, fully. Last time, she allowed fuelled rage to blind her, leading what could only prove to be something almost close to the suffering experienced years before under Fagin's control. Dark days those were, and she had every reason to believe Kerrigan could do much worse. After all, the Queen of Blades definitely did not need a psi-screen to stop any type of psionic attack that could be initiated, especially with Nova in this state. "What do you want from me?"

"I don't know." Mildly surprised, the Ghost decided to at least stay somewhat focused. If what she feared was true, she had all the time in the world to listen. Kerrigan paused, as if expecting a reaction, but continued when none was given. "What do you think?"

"Nothing." Both of them lightly smiled at each other. Nova was a bit surprised as to how fast she was starting to take all of this in stride, but more thoughts dictate that it was not that strange. After all, she did put a bullet through Kerrigan's head, and while that most likely did not cause much of a scratch, it was an assassination attempt. At this point it was just a matter of luck that the Queen of Blades was not looking for vengeance by ripping the skin from her bones or something equally terrifying. "You wanted to keep me alive, you figure it out."

"That was a strange decision, I admit." With a wave of her hand, Kerrigan conjured up a throne of flesh, erupting from beneath them both. Her powers were far less random and volatile than what Nova recalled, but those reports were severely out-dated. "I thought about killing you, sure, but I supposed it would have been far too easy."

"So instead, what are you going to do now?" Nova had since then regained some of her strength, making basic operations no longer so costly. While standing up proved to be a much more daunting task than she had previously anticipated, it was not long before she was back on her feet. Keeping still was truly making her agitated, however, and she could not afford to make sudden movements in case Kerrigan was not feeling like having any of it. "The psychic assault was quite effective, I assured you. However, I figured if you wanted to do anything more than that I would have been much worse off by now."

"That was just because you were being difficult." Kerrigan smirked. She had no reason to lie, as what use would a squirming prey have in continuing to be entertaining should it pass out from pain all the time. "Still, watching you twitch and moan did have its charms."

"I'm sure." Nova scoffed. Looking around, it was difficult to grasp what exactly was going to happen. Surely, inside a beast's belly could not have had that many things to do. What exactly was Kerrigan up to all this time, and what possible use could Nova herself have; which did not concern mind crushing for torture and enjoyment, of course. "There have to be so many things for you to do here, you would not have time for someone like me."

"I can assure you I always have time to break you and enjoy every second of it." Verbal sparring was far beyond commonplace. While they did not have history, it was far too easy for both of them to dictate a conversation. After all, being trained in the Terran Ghost Academy tended to do that to operatives, even if they were made to be cold-blooded killing machines. "Right now, though, I'm just bored."

"Are you afraid hurting others will get old too quick?" Another comeback, albeit this one was short lived. It would be hard to keep being smug once your stomach was hit with a winged claw at blinding speed. Nova was quickly on the ground, halfway regretting tempting her own fate.

"No, it wouldn't." Kerrigan, however, simply had no reason to stop. She was in total control, and while she would never admit the Ghost was already becoming a better companion than the acid-drooling Zergling she had as a pet before, albeit much less cute, it was not in her best interest to deal irreparable damage. That was compounded by the fact that the last thing she wanted was to have a human experiment for Abathur, given how catastrophic that turned out previously. "Get up, it wasn't that hard."

"That maybe…" Nova struggled to lift herself off the ground. While the hit was far less than lethal, her worn out physique, compounded that she had not eaten for quite a while, was seriously getting to her resilience. Best she could do was crawled up into a kneeling position, one arm over her aching stomach and the other supporting her side. A pant was heard. "I'm just… not exactly in top form at the moment."

"Oh, sorry about that." The sarcasm was sorely missed. Stepping off the throne, Kerrigan slowly approached the fallen Ghost, displaying her far more prominent health. Few realized how much of her own gale-covered skin was of her own design. The process of transformation was, in fact, far more liberating than one would seem to think. After all, there existed hooves growing out of the sole of her feet simply to look like heels; the only different was that there was no potential harm to her feet. "I wasn't aware I had to feed you as well."

"Funny…" That hit dealt a considerably harder blow to Nova's constitution than both of them could have predicted. She found herself no longer able to support her own upper body weight, instead collapsing on the shoulder, quivering from a lack of energy and heating in general. Her suite was not exactly well kept, and the holes were doing little else but disclosing how vulnerable her current condition was. "Hell…"

"…" A retracting hum than a lack of a comment, Kerrigan was deep in thought. While it was the least of her priorities, it was rather obvious that starvation would take Nova much faster than she could have. It would be quite a bit ironic to stop the girl from killing herself yet force her to die from hunger. That would not be funny, simply bad manner. Still, they were far deep in space, and eatable substances was not going to simply make themselves known for the sake of convenience. "How did you get here?"

"Why…" Half a question was followed by a thought. It was obvious, Nova noticed, that she was simply slowly dying at this pace. Knowing what little she did of Kerrigan, it would be a bit unexpected for the Queen of Blades herself to be so powerless in solving a problem. While Nova would certainly not mind a stab through the heart to end all suffering, gradually writhing away to nothingness was certainly not up there on the ways she wanted to spend the last of her days. "The Wraith is behind the third eye."

She heard nothing after that, as if Kerrigan simply vanished. It would not surprise her if the Queen of Blades were able to simply assimilate herself through out the insides of this gigantic beast. From what had been seen, there exists an alarming amount of evolution chambers within this fleshy compound. There probably were thousands, if not millions, of Zerg away from eyeshot somewhere. It was not an easy idea to think of, but that was the least of her problems right now.

…

"Get up." That voice was as cold as ever, but Nova knew what it meant. Or at least, her senses were not all masked at that time. She could smell the slightly charred fleshed from across the figurative room. If anything, it urged her to open those viridescent eyes. What she first felt, however, was being lightly pushed off the ground into a sitting position. "Here."

"…Thank you." Nova hesitantly took the piece of what appeared to be seared meat. It was neither the greatest looking nor greatest smelling piece of meat she had ever seen, but at this point it hardly mattered. However, she did not recall bringing this type of food with her on the ship, as this would hardly be feasible to keep in cryostatis long enough for space travel. Instead, she had food pills, efficient and prompt, to keep her nourished. "What… exactly is this?"

"You honestly cannot think the leviathan would leave a bug on its eyelids for that long." Her fears were confirmed. It was quite ambitious of her to expect her ride to be preserved after this long, as this mission was not at all supposed to take any more than a few minutes. Most of her equipment should also have been compromised, leaving any chance of successfully getting off this accursed vessel improbable. "That means you don't want to know what that is."

Not another word before Nova lightly took a bite out of the food given to her. It tasted horribly, not to mention clearly burnt in various places. However, her position was far from one where a demand was justifiable, thus she kept quiet. While it was unpleasant, the food served its purpose of keeping her from starving, quite well in fact. It was not shocking to see Kerrigan feeding her captive, but seeing her going out of her way to do a decent job was nonetheless unexpected.

"That was kind of you."

"I know you might not be thinking very clear right now, but trying to set me off my not be the best game plan you have." Kerrigan was clearly not amused. She did not even know why she made an effort, but it was too late now. Perhaps a verbal jab some time down the line would do great on the record.

"No, I mean it."

Complete silence.

"Look…"

"I know. You didn't mean to." Neither of them knew when the conversation had suddenly become that of mutual respect, but it has. Nova knew not of any ulterior motives possibly involved, but it was none of her concerns. Knowing her ship was consumed sufficiently put her into a hopeless position. While she had escaped from a situation similar to this before, it did not seem nearly as bleak at the time. Then, she was being controlled, hands forced by threats and power. At the moment, it was purely the lack of motivation. This was going to be her last big job, her last tie to cut, and it was going to be all over. It still is, just in a completely different way. "It doesn't make the slightest difference to me."

"I see." Kerrigan could not help but crept a smile. No longer could she sense a conflict of interest, and that might just be saying goodbye to what was left of any retaliation. She was not at all displeased, and she was not even sure why. The only thing she knew for sure, was that this trip towards certain doom might not be as boring as she thought.


End file.
